Perahia tackles the Chopin challenge

By WILLIAM DART

American Murray Perahia is one of the most thoughtful of today's pianists. When an injury a few years back threatened his career, he immersed himself in the works of Bach.

This aided his recuperation both physically and spiritually, leading to some fine recordings of the composer's music, including a Grammy-winning English Suites.

Now, to borrow the language of Sky's E! channel, Perahia tackles the extreme with a collection of Chopin Etudes - although not quite complete, as he's omitted the three Nouvelles Etudes published after the composer's death.

Far from being finger-rattling and mind-numbing virtuosics, these studies revolutionised piano writing, both technically and expressively. When Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Tim Page hails them as the Himalayas of piano literature in the CD booklet, he is not being over-lofty in his praise.

There are some extremely well-known (and nicknamed) works here, like the Tristesse, Revolutionary, Butterfly and Aeolian Harp studies, but the most fascinating remain nameless. The E flat minor work of Opus 10, with its sliding Tristanesque harmonies, is just one, and Perahia balances its various lines and intensities to perfection.

One is left with the impression that melody is paramount to Perahia who brings a gorgeous lyricism to the popular Op 10 no 3 and transforms the middle section of Op 25 no 5 into swooning arcs of sound. Perhaps the secret lies in the pianist's acute understanding of Chopin's rubato, those minuscule fluctuations of tempo that give the music its subtle internal momentum.

Technically, the Etudes hold few fears for this man, although it must be said that the double thirds of Op 25 no 6 are rather bumpier than the sleek chromatics of Op 10 no 2. And, even at his most brilliant, creating a brusque march out of Op 10 no 8, the American pianist illuminates concealed melodies that might well elude lesser colleagues.

It has been superbly recorded in London's Lyndhurst Hall and producer Andreas Neubronner, who has worked with the likes of Keith Jarrett, gives Perahia the same luminosity of sound in a disc that has few rivals in its field.

* Murray Perahia, Chopin Etudes (Sony SK61885).